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Do people still buy standard definition video cameras? Panasonic seems to think so. The company has announced that its pocket-sized SDR-S7 will be arriving in Japan later this month. Weighing only 182grams with its battery and SD card, the camera can record 16:9 or 4:3 video at VGA (640 x 480) resolution in MPEG-2 format. The camcorder can shoot in three video modes: XP (10 Mbps), SP (5 Mbps), and LP (2.5 Mbps). Video recordings are stored via SD cards, with up to 16GB support—allowing up to 13 hours of recorded video in LP mode.  The featherweight SDR-S7 is equipped with a 2.7-inch widescreen display, 10x optical zoom, stereo microphone, 0.6 seconds Quick Start, and USB 2.0 for fast file transferring. Panasonic is touting the camcorder’s 3.8 seconds boot up time and battery life of 70 minutes. Unfortunately, no HD capability is included, which is a bummer. However, if you’re in the market for something entry-level, ultra portable, and compact the SDR-S7 should fit the bill. It even comes conveniently bundled with Panasonic’s MotionSD STUDIO 1.3 video editing software.

The Panasonic SDR-S7 measures 1.61 x 2.32 x 4.01-inches and will come in black or silver. The release date is April 25th in Japan for 44,800 Yen ($440). A US release is expected to follow in May.

Via [Electronista]